Nobody saw nothing, and the alleged crime reporters fill in none of the blanks, and give no context. Aren’t Marxists always stressing the importance of “context”? (Oh, but that’s just a rhetorical ploy of theirs.) For instance, they could at least say on which gang’s turf a shooting occurred.

Why would someone shoot a female FedEx driver in her truck? It’s all presented as “senseless gun violence.” It sounds like it’s “just the facts,” but most of the facts that would permit readers to understand what happened are left out.

A man was fatally shot in the city's South Side in the Bronzeville neighborhood, and at least 13 others were wounded during shootings citywide over 36 hours Friday and Saturday.

Most recently, about 7:30 a.m. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was shot in the upper thigh in the 3500 block of West Hirsch Street, according to police. Chicago Police News affairs Officer Jose Estrada said the man was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in an unknown condition.

In addition to the gunshot victim, another 19-year-old man was the victim of a battery when he was pistol whipped by the same person who shot the other man, police said. The battery victim was listed in good condition, police said.

[The last sentence just said that the battery (pistol-whipping) victim was in good condition. The next sentence will tell you that his condition is “serious to critical.” Apparently, the Tribune does not have copy editors in its employ. It sounds like an entire passage about a crime got lost, and that the next passage is about that crime.]

Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva listed that man's condition as serious to critical and also said a second victim was taken in fair-to-serious condition to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center.

It was not clear if the second victim was shot or wounded in another way.

Earlier, in the city's Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the calf about 4:50 a.m. in a gang-related attack, said News Affairs Officer Janel Sedevic.

The boy was a passenger inside a vehicle in the 4000 block of West Fullerton Avenue when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside it shouted gang slogans at the boy's car before firing shots at it, said Sedevic. The boy was driven to Our Lady of The Resurrection Medical Center where he was listed in good condition. No one is in custody, according to Sedevic.

In the city's Englewood neighborhood about 4 a.m., someone shot a 17-year-old boy in the leg in the 6800 block of South Throop Street, said News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines. The teen was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition had stabilized.

In another attack in the Englewood neighborhood, someone shot two men in the 500 block of West Tremont Street about 2 a.m., according to Gaines.

One victim, 21, was shot in the head and seriously wounded while the other, 39, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks, Gaines said. Both were taken to Stroger hospital. The older man's condition had stabilized.

The crime scene was outside a large 2-story frame house in an area near Hope Park without many buildings. Most have been torn down, police on the scene said. District officers cordoned off a wrought iron fence leading into the house with yellow tape. A front door to the home remained open and colored lights lit up two upstairs rooms.

Several shell casings were recovered by evidence technicians in the street in front of the home.

No one was in custody, Gaines said.

In a separate attack in the South Side's Stony Island Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was shot in the hand at 85th Street and S. East End Avenue, according to Gaines. Police learned of the shooting, which happened about 12:45 a.m., when the victim went to Roseland Community Hospital for treatment. He was in good condition, said Gaines.

In other shootings Friday, one man was killed and seven others wounded.

About 1:30 p.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the head on the 300 block of East 51st Street, in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood, police said.

He was identified as Marc Campbell of the 9200 block of South Stony Island Boulevard and was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:41 p.m., according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Police responded to a call of a person shot and found paramedics already on the scene. Officers interviewed a witness who told them he was standing behind the assailant and saw the attacker shoot the 20-year-old using a handgun with an extended clip, according to a police report.

The witness ran for cover and wasn't able to see the gunman's face. Other assisting officers reported that the gunman's vehicle, a silver minivan with Florida license plates, fled north and then west, the report said. The minivan was later found, in flames, about 6:30 p.m. in the 3700 block of South Ellis Avenue, poilce said.

Several shell casings were recovered and a POD camera was active [?] at the time of the killing.

Earlier Friday afternoon, two men were wounded in a shooting at 12:05 p.m. on the 1500 block of West Morse Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood, News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada said. A 41-year-old man was shot in the right leg and a 25-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, police said. Both were taken to St. Francis Hospital.

In addition to that shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot in the thigh at 12:39 p.m. on the 5100 block of South Emerald Avenue in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side at 12:39 p.m., according to police. He was taken to Stroger hospital.

At 6:37 p.m., a man and a 48-year-old FedEx driver were shot on 41st and Cottage Grove in Bronzeville, officials said.

The man, 19, was shot in the left arm and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition. The woman FedEx driver suffered several gunshot wounds to her right leg and was taken in critical condition to Northwestern, officials said.

According to a police report of the incident, the 19-year-old told police he saw a white Chevrolet Monte Carlo with tinted windows traveling northbound on Cottage Grove and then make a left onto 42nd Street. A gunman exited the car and fired shots at him, hitting the 19-year-old in his left elbow and giving him a graze wound across his upper back, the report said.

The victim said he didn't get a good look at the shooter because he was running east to try to get away. The assailant or assailants continued west.

The woman driving the truck was also going north on Cottage Grove when she was hit in the right knee, the report said. She was not able to talk to responding officers because she'd lost consciousness, the report said.

FedEx spokesman Scott Fiedler confirmed that the woman was an employee.

"Our thoughts are with our employee and her family during this difficult time and we wish her a speedy recovery. FedEx would like to thank the first responders and hospital for their work to assist our employee," Fiedler said in a statement Saturday.

A woman who lives on the 3rd floor apartment across the street from where the FedEx truck was still parked late Friday with its front and rear hazards going said she was at home all night with her 17-month-old son and had ordered a pizza.

When the delivery man left about 7:10 p.m., she closed the blinds and noticed the flashing lights of the first responders.

"I closed the blinds and saw them pull the woman out and put her on a stretcher," said the resident, who declined to be identified.

At first she said she saw two police officers and then multiple other personnel go to the scene, including paramedics from the Chicago Fire Department. She saw officers looking around the outside of the truck, which did not have any broken windows or appear to be damaged except for a blown front driver's side tire.

There was a pool of what appeared to be blood outside of the front passenger side of the truck near the tire and red stains could be seen on the lower part of the truck, near the door. Bright orange rubber gloves were discarded nearby.

The resident said she didn't hear anything that sounded like a shooting.

Earlier Friday, an 18-year-old man was shot in the lower abdomen about 1:46 a.m. in the 9400 block of South Commercial in the Calumet Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side, said News Affairs Officer Thomas Sweeney. The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition.

In addition to those shootings, a suspect in a home invasion was wounded by an off-duty police officer in the Longwood Manor neighborhood at about noon today.

[Ms. Coulter is friends with neoliberal Mickey Kaus, but while Kaus [email him] is opposed to amnesty, he’s a supporter of socialized medicine.]

I've been thrown off my health insurance—THANKS, OBAMACARE!—and have spent hours and hours over the past month trying to figure out my options now that the Democrats have made my old plan, which I liked, "illegal." (I prefer to think of my plan as "undocumented.")

Whom do I bill for the hours of work Obamacare forced me to perform? How about you, Mickey? You're the smartest living liberal (faint praise), and you assured us that Obamacare was going to be fantastic.

By now, Obama has issued "waivers" from Obamacare to about 99 percent of the country. (As you may have heard, there's a big midterm election this year.) As one of the few Americans not granted a waiver, I'm here to tell you: You have no idea what's coming, America.…

Only days before President Obama revealed that his worst fear was a nuclear terror attack on Manhattan, a nearly blind guard was caught sleeping on the job at the Freedom Tower — where he was the building’s first line of defense.

In this cellphone photo obtained exclusively by The Post, Abdul Basher, 65, is wearing shades and lying almost completely horizontal in a chair in the No. 1 terror target’s south lobby, where he was the only guard stationed, sources said.

Even when awake, Basher admittedly can’t open his left eye and has “hazy” vision out of his right due to a nerve condition.

“Sometimes I cannot recognize people, stairs,” Basher said. “That post was so hard to cover for me. It was very, very stressful. I could barely see half of the lobby.”

A Port Authority worker spotted Basher snoozing on duty at around 2:45 a.m. Saturday — six days after a New Jersey teenager slipped past another sleeping guard on the 104th floor of the building on the way to the spire, sources said.

Modal Trigger
Security at the Freedom Tower has been called into question after a pair of high-profile breaches, including this Sept. 30 BASE jump from the skyscraper’s spire, which the parachutists recorded on video.

Basher was fired on the spot, suffering the same fate as the guard on duty when the high-schooler got through.

The shop steward for SEIU ¬Local 32BJ said Basher — named the union’s “Security Officer of the Year” for 2013 — was “just getting ready to go on disability.”

His nap-time photo emerged a day after Obama shrugged off Russia as a major US security threat, saying that he was more concerned about a nuclear attack on New York City.

Basher said he was stunned that his bosses put him in charge of such a sensitive location — and had been expecting merely to guard a stairwell door that night.

“The security division is so poorly managed . . . Every security guard that works for them is mentally stressed,” he said.

The Bangladeshi immigrant with some missing teeth also claimed he hadn’t been dozing.

“To my knowledge, actually I was not sleeping. I was mistaken to be sleeping. I was exercising my eyes,” he insisted.

The PA, the owner of the site, referred all questions to the Durst Organization, which supplies guards in 1 World Trade Center.

A high-ranking PA insider called the incident “troubling” and said Durst execs would be called on the carpet.

Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz confirmed that Basher “was terminated on the spot after he was found sleeping on the job.”

Barowitz refused to specify what measures, if any, would be taken to prevent future security screw-ups.

Construction workers at Ground Zero were appalled by the photo. “There’s our hardworking security right there . . . What a joke!” one said.

A term used by semi drivers to describe Interstate 95 through Prince George's County, Maryland. Drivers do not yield coming up the on-ramps, they tailgate like crazy, they never check their mirrors, and play havoc with the big rigs. The entire Washington Beltway used to be called Ring Around The Congo.

Notice how he tries to cue the audience to applaud by repeatedly thanking them, thinking that will do the trick. They understand what he wants, but they’re not going to give it to him. For him to talk about privacy rights is as obscene as him talking about … health care. They won’t boo him, because that’s not their style, but the quiet in the hall is the sound of contempt.

I began exchanging emails with Lawrence Auster in 2001. The only time Larry's prickly nature occurred with me was in 2003 over the Iraq invasion.

I sent Larry an email saying I opposed it. I think I wrote something like it wasn't worth it. Larry answered, "You sound like an anti-Semite."

Huh?

I replied that the Bush administration would bring every Iraqi possible INTO this country. I also asked why do we go overseas to fight Islamic terror while bringing huge numbers of Muslims INTO America.

Larry accepted this as a legitimate criticism and even made it frequently himself.

He really favored "Operation Iraqi Freedom," thought it would be a WWII-style liberation, and didn't expect the ensuing insurrection.

Your statement that the left is after power itself reminded me of a book I read decades ago by an escapee from Mao's China. He wrote that whatever slogans Communists espoused, their aim was political power.

[N.S.: I’ve gotten several letters about Larry Auster, since my article on him appeared at VDARE. I’m printing as many of them as I can, but I fear that I won’t be able to give curious readers as much insight into the man as they would wish. Some of the letters give too much personal information about the writer or other people, and thus have to be edited, while at least one person gave me some interesting information, only to request that I not publish it. And I never claimed to be very knowledgeable about Larry, to begin with.]

Three teens, arrested for allegedly beating several Temple University students in random [sic], gang-style attacks, will be charged as adults, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday.

Najee Bilaal, 16,15-year-old Zaria Estes, and 15-year-old Kanesha Gainey were charged on Wednesday with Aggravated Assault, Conspiracy, Possession of an Instrument of a Crime (PIC), Terroristic Threats, Simple Assault and Recklessly Endangering Another Person (REAP) for three attacks which took place over a 20 minute span last Friday evening, according to the DA's Office.

On Tuesday, investigators with Philadelphia Police's Central Detective Division said they had taken five teenage girls into custody for the assaults -- arresting one and questioning the other four. They range in age from 17 to 14-years-old.

The additional arrests were made on Wednesday and the charges upgraded.

Bilaal and Estes are being held on $100,000 bail and Gainey on $75,000.

According to state court records, this is the sixth time Bilaal has been charged with a crime. She's previously been arrested for theft and criminal trespassing, among other crimes.

[It’s almost impossible for a black female to get herself arrested. In other words, she’s a crime machine. And what was the disposition of those arrests? Disappeared?]

The attacks, the most serious of which took place at 17th and Norris Streets where a 19-year-old was beaten in the face with a brick, all occurred within blocks of Temple University's North Philadelphia campus.

The 19-year-old woman, who spoke exclusively to NBC10.com, was walking with her 20-year-old boyfriend around 6 p.m. on Friday evening when she says a group of girls and boys began taunting and touching them. When they pushed back, the girls allegedly started swinging.

“My boyfriend pushed the girl away from me that hit me in the face and then the girl’s sister came at me with a brick,” said the victim, who asked that we not share her identity.

The woman was hit twice in the face with the brick, the impact nearly knocking out her teeth. The assault forced her to get emergency surgery.

Speaking with the woman on Tuesday, she tells NBC10.com that she's doing better. She now has braces on her teeth to keep them in place.

Police say there were two other attacks that took place within minutes of the brick attack.

NBC10.com talked to another Temple student, a 20-year-old junior, who said she was walking down her street when she was punched by a several girls. That alleged attack took place along the 1700 block of Willington Street, which runs behind Philadelphia Police's 22nd District headquarters, around 5:45 p.m. on Friday -- just 15 minutes before the brick attack.
The co-ed said she was typing a text message to a friend and when she looked up, the girls attacked.

“I typed [the message] and lifted my head to start walking again and as I lifted my head up, there was a girl coming at me, swinging at me, and I was able to lean back. She barely hit my chin, and then she swung again and hit my mouth area and my neck and I was able to shove her away and sprint away,” said the woman who also asked that we do not share her identity.

Investigators said the girls are also responsible for a third attack at 17th and Cecil B. Moore Streets in which they allegedly assaulted another woman who is a Temple University student.

Detectives said the motive for the alleged attacks is currently unclear. [What a lie!] They said the girls, who do not live in the neighborhood, took a bus into the area before the alleged attacks and left on a bus after. [Non-sequitur alert: they traveled to Temple to attack white girls. Racist black females have a murderous hatred of white females, and love to disfigure them.] Police are also investigating how the girls met, because, police say, they all go to different high schools.

Temple was criticized by students and parents for not being notified about the off-campus attacks, only learning they happened after seeing a series of reports on NBC10.com and NBC10 News on TV.

The university said it reserves such campus-wide alerts for imminently dangerous situations that require immediate action.

[But it was an imminently dangerous situation that required immediate action.]

Late Monday, Temple officials announced they would be expanding bike patrols off campus and working with Philadelphia Police and Pennsylvania State Police to enhance security in the areas directly west of campus.
________________________________________Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

The European Union pledged 500,000 euros ($690,000) to fight the contagion, while the Senegalese interior ministry said border crossings to Guinea would be closed "until further notice".

The order affects crossings at Kolda and Kedougou in the south of Senegal which are heavily used by traders, particularly during a weekly market attended by thousands from neighbouring countries.

Eight cases of Ebola have been confirmed in Conakry, the Guinean health ministry said late Friday, including one fatality.

Across the country, "the total number of suspected cases recorded from January to 28 March 2014 is 111 cases of haemorrhagic fever including 70 deaths ... or a fatality rate of 63 percent," the ministry said in a statement.

Samples taken from 45 of the suspect cases included 19 which tested positive for Ebola.

Map of West Africa charting the spread of the Ebola outbreak, with facts about the disease (AFP Phot …
Most of the cases were recorded in southern Guinea, but the disease has spread to the capital since Wednesday.

Those infected have been put in isolation to prevent the virus from spreading, while aid organisations have sent dozens of workers to help the poor west African country combat the outbreak of haemorrhagic fever.

- 'Deeply concerned' -

The EU's aid offer came after a plea for assistance from the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS). The regional bloc said it was "deeply concerned" about the epidemic which presented a "serious threat to the region".

An electron micrograph image of an Ebola virus virion obtained March 24, 2014 from the Centers for D …

No treatment or vaccine is available, and the Zaire strain detected in Guinea -- first observed 38 years ago in what is today called the Democratic Republic of Congo -- has a 90 percent death rate.

Sakoba Keita, who heads the Guinean health ministry's prevention division said it remains unclear how Ebola had arrived in Guinea.

Tests on the other cases of haemorrhagic fever are still ongoing to determine their origin.

"We hope to get (the results) quickly as these cases should be treated like Ebola as they are also deadly," he said.

Guinea is one of the world's poorest nations despite vast untapped mineral wealth, with a stagnating economy, youth unemployment at 60 percent and a rank of 178th out of 187 countries on the UN's Human Development Index.

The World Health Organisation said Liberia had reported eight suspected cases of Ebola fever, including six deaths, while Sierra Leone had reported six suspected cases, five of them fatal.

Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals, and between humans through direct contact with another's blood, faeces or sweat, as well as sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

MSF said the spread of the disease was being exacerbated by people travelling to funerals in which mourners touch the bodies of the dead.

Guinea has banned the consumption of bat soup, a popular delicacy in the country, as the fruit bat is believed to be the host species.

The Marxists who control Wikipedia, or as I call it, The Pretend Encyclopedia, have long maintained an advertisement disguised as an encyclopedia article, promoting the Southern Poverty Law Center. As the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard reported on March 26, the FBI unceremoniously dumped the SPLC and ADL from its list of resources this month. Readers have entered the new information, only to have their work vandalized by lying, racist enforcers like DD2K, alias Dave Dial, The Four Deuces, and Dougweller, who assert that there is “no consensus” for adding the essential new information, and that a blog by leftwing Democratic Party propaganda organization Media Matters for America denying the FBI’s official act is a “reliable source.” In other words, they hate the truth, and will do anything to prevent it from coming out. (The “consensus” criterion is a red herring; ninety percent of editors could support a change, only to have the thread declare that there is “no consensus.” Meanwhile, when a thread Nazi

Passage that is still intact:

The SPLC maintains a list of ''hate groups'' defined as groups that "...have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." It says that hate group activities may include speeches, marches, rallies, meetings, publishing, leafleting, and criminal acts such as violence. It says not all groups so listed by the SPLC engage in criminal activity. The FBI has partnered with the SPLC "to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems".

[As the people, e.g., EvergreenFir, who have sought in vain to correct the page have pointed out on the Wikipedia’s SPLC “talk” page, the foregoing paragraph is false.

The FBI "Hate Crimes" webpage previously provided a link to the SPLC website as a "Resource" but that link and a link to the Anti-Defamation League website were removed in March 2014 without explanation.

The moment I looked at the painting and the dates of the campaign, I knew that the officer or non-com firing had to have the M1911, one of the greatest weapons ever invented by man, in his shooting hand. (I don’t know spit about weapons, but my chief of research has taught me a bit.)

Therein lies a fascinating but brief tale, as told by an old infantryman. How old? He endured basic “more years ago than I care to admit.”

Larry Auster, that brilliant, impossible man, died one year ago today.

I wrote an article in his honor, which my VDARE editor Peter Brimelow published today.

Most great intellects, as I learned the hard way, are insufferable in person, regardless of their politics. Your trusty correspondent is, of course, a dazzling exception to this rule.

And yet, some of us desire the company of great minds, and sometimes that company is rewarding, as I learned in the case of Roger Starr, one of the greatest thinkers you never heard of. And when Daniel Bell died, a journalist wrote of contacting Bell when the former was a young man, and getting an invitation to a bagel brunch with a very generous Bell. So, there are exceptions to every rule, but don’t be shocked, when the rule asserts itself.

I’ll have more to say about Larry. My editor, Peter Brimelow, permitted me to go way over my word count, out of respect for Larry, but I still cut thousands of words before sending in my ms. (If a writer would wish Christian charity from his editor, he would do well, not to belabor the matter.

On March 9, 2013, 20 days before his death. The chemo cost him his hair, though he hadn't had a full head of hair before that.

Some out-takes follow.

In a land of almost 314 million “residents,” how important could one old, crotchety, heterosexual, white Christian man have been?

In the America of 1940, when we had 131 million Americans, Auster’s loss might not have been so keenly felt, but in today’s Third World flop house, he was irreplaceable….

He was so obsessed with being conservatively correct that I believe he said things that he wouldn’t say, were he to meditate openly on a matter….

Instead of saying: “We believe in the equal and unlimited right of all people to immigrate to the U.S. and enrich our land with their diversity,” what if they said: “We believe in an immigration policy which must result in a staggering increase in our population, a revolution in our culture and way of life, and the gradual submergence of our current population by Hispanic and Caribbean and Asian peoples.” Such frankness would open up an honest debate between those who favor a radical change in America’s ethnic and cultural identity and those who think this nation should preserve its way of life and its predominant, European-American character. That is the actual choice—as distinct from the theoretical choice between “equality” and “racism”—that our nation faces….

Auster had an incredible run as a blogger, averaging some 10,000 readers per day. There were very few working intellectuals who posted blog items on a regular basis, and only two of whom had such readerships: Auster and Steve Sailer.

Most popular bloggers are not intellectuals at all, and even those who might be academics or journalists, typically either just post links to articles with a few remarks, or promote their paid works. I know of at least one full-time journalist who seems to publish a great many blog items, but I suspect that someone is ghosting work for that individual. There are, after all, only so many hours in the day.

Published: 1 day ago
Diana West
Diana West is the author of "The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization," and blogs at dianawest.net.

It may surprise some Americans to learn that almost one-quarter of the people living in Switzerland are foreigners. Even so, just over 50 percent voted last month to cap immigration, which, unchecked, could leave indigenous Swiss a minority in 50 years. Newsweek’s headline over the story was typical: “Switzerland’s Sudden Fear of Immigrants.”

Fear. Immigrants. The German publication Spiegel Online wrote also about “scaremongering.” The enlightened reader’s thought-bubble is now supposed to register the word “racism.” But was it really “fear of immigrants” – read: “racism” – that drove sufficient numbers of Swiss to the polls to check their own demographic extinction as a recognizable culture and nation-state? Or was it a nearly anachronistic instinct to survive as a recognizable culture and nation-state?

I see it as the instinct to survive – and applaud the Swiss for deciding to limit the influx of Europeans, Slavs, Muslims, Africans and others, whose demographic waves are otherwise sure to transform indigenous Swiss culture into a global multiculture. I also envy them for mustering this basic vital sign, this narrow-edged popular will to control their own borders. It is something that has all but flat-lined in America, where capping immigration – let alone halting it to attempt some measure of assimilation and economic resuscitation – is not even a part of the political debate.

Why isn’t it? In the U.S., the foreign-born population is now estimated to be around 13 percent, and it’s rising every year. This poses truly existential problems, particularly since the concept of “melting” into American culture was junked long ago – along with “American” culture. Meanwhile, that overall percentage, a little more than one in 10, masks the greater density and impact of foreign-born populations in the states and cities where immigrants and illegal aliens congregate.

Take California, a state where waves of mainly Mexican arrivals (legal and illegal) have turned the population 38 percent Hispanic/Latino. In Los Angeles County, the figure jumps to 48 percent. The next largest ethnic group is non-Hispanic white: 27 percent – almost down to one in four. In 1960, not long before I was born in L.A., non-Hispanic whites were 82 percent of the county. What we are looking at is population replacement – and it has taken place well inside the span of one lifetime.

Such population replacement is under way everywhere non-assimilable blocs become entrenched – with or without “amnesty.” But We, the People, have never voted for it. It just happens, forced or enabled from above. It could be that a majority of us want to disappear in a global multiculture – or, in the case of states like California, into an enclave-pocked Mexican monoculture. But that’s not why we have borders and immigration laws. Tragically, we also have a political class and presidents who lawlessly refuse to enforce these laws, making a mockery of our borders, not to mention the democratic process. This makes a mockery of our nationhood, too. It looks like a means to an end – the end of that nationhood.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is one shining exception to this treacherous rule. In fact, just how exceptional Sessions is becomes clear upon reading his description in a recent report by The Hill on Sessions’ sensational findings that the Obama administration, through executive orders and directives, has “already granted de facto amnesty to millions of illegal U.S. residents.” The Hill describes Sessions as “a vocal opponent of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants.” Once upon a time, opposition to conferring citizenship on people here illegally would have been wholly unremarkable and thus unremarked upon. No more.

What happened? If we consider the typical reaction to the recent Swiss vote – denigration of a nation’s survival instinct as a primitive expression of fear and racism – we will recognize the mechanism of our own demise: silence and retreat in the face of endless recrimination and grievance-mongering. What a way to lose a country.

And what a way to lose a world – the “Western” world, where this same pattern repeats almost everywhere. The demographics of The Hague, Netherlands, for example, are not too dissimilar from those in California. As in other major Dutch cities, about half of the people living there are from another country, with non-Western immigrants, mainly Muslim and often Moroccan, making up over one-third of the population. That non-Western figure approaches the halfway mark in the under-21 demographic. Short of a sharp reversal and coupled with high rates of Dutch out-migration, it becomes highly unlikely that the future of the Dutch seat of government will be Dutch.

Is it “fear” and “scaremongering” to point this out? Is it “racism” to oppose the demographic obliteration of a nation clearly under way? According to what is aptly described as the Dutch establishment – from the prime minister, leading mayors, Dutch media, plus, quite shockingly, the U.S. ambassador, who, in a break with diplomatic etiquette, has publicly commented on Dutch affairs – the answer to both questions is yes. This past week has seen yet another public hate campaign by this establishment to smear, demonize and thus neutralize the one Dutch party that opposes the nation’s suicide – the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders.

I’ve written more on these events at my blog, www.dianawest.net. For now, it’s worth noting that the Dutch are lucky. With the steadfast and brilliant Wilders leading a popular movement, at least they have a chance to survive.

Elmer Bernstein, aka “Bernstein West,” was a protégé of Aaron Copland’s, and a few of these pieces contain homages to his old teacher.

National Geographic FanfareThe Great Escape
“Silver”The Journey of Natty Gann (two unused pieces)
One piece from the unused score to A River Runs Through ItDesire Under the Elms (brief piece)
The March from StripesFar from HeavenThree AmigosThe Man with the Golden ArmThe Sweet Smell of SuccessTo Kill a MockingbirdThe Magnificent Seven

The University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music orchestras celebrated the career of screen composer Elmer Bernstein in an event hosted by KUSC-FM personality Jim Svejda. The tribute concert featured the USC Thornton Orchestra and the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra performing selections from several memorable film scores from Bernstein's long and illustrious career. Mr. Bernstein, a former faculty member of the USC Thornton School, composed for both movies and television and is noted for many classic soundtracks including The Ten Commandments and The Grifters.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has labeled several Washington, D.C.-based family organizations as "hate groups" for favoring traditional marriage, has been dumped as a "resource" on the FBI's Hate Crime Web page, a significant rejection of the influential legal group.

The Web page scrubbing, which also included eliminating the Anti-Defamation League, was not announced and came in the last month after 15 family groups pressed Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey to stop endorsing a group -- SPLC -- that inspired a recent case of domestic terrorism at the Family Research Council.

"We commend the FBI for removing website links to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that not only dispenses erroneous data but has been linked to domestic terrorism in federal court. We hope this means the FBI leadership will avoid any kind of partnership with the SPLC,” Tony Perkins, FRC President, told Secrets.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center's mission to push anti-Christian propaganda is inconsistent with the mission of both the military and the FBI, which is to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States,” he added.

The Anti-Defamation League, however, was "shocked" by the FBI's move, made without any notice. It's work with the FBI has not been questioned.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Secrets, “We are shocked, surprised and disappointed that this would be done without any consultation with groups such as ours who have been working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on issues of hate crime. We look forward to having further conversations with them on this issue.”

The FBI had no comment and offered no explanation for its decision to end their website's relationship with the two groups, leaving just four federal links as hate crime “resources.” The SPLC had no comment.

SPLC has been a leading voice against hate crimes, and has singled out evangelical and traditional family groups as advocates of hate against gays. It has even gone after a local official, Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, who also heads a group that promotes traditional, opposite sex marriage.

In August 2012, a Washington area man guided by the SPLC's "hate map" that cited FRC, entered the group's headquarters and shot a security guard. The guard survived and the shooter, a volunteer with a gay group, pleaded guilty to domestic terrorism.

In their letter, the 15 conservative groups argued that the FBI website's inclusion of SPLC as a resource "played a significant part in bringing about an act of domestic terrorism." It added, "It is completely inappropriate for the Department of Justice to recommend public reliance on the SPLC hate group lists and data. The links to the SPLC as a FBI ‘Resource’ must be taken down immediately, leaving only official, trustworthy sources listed on the agency’s webpage."Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- According to the latest reports from police, at least 17 incidents were reported after a group of approximately 200 teens began robbing and assaulting people Saturday night.

Police say it started around 7:45 p.m. when the teens gathered near the entrance of the Big Four Bridge.

That's where police say 12 teens assaulted and robbed a 13-year-old girl, as well as a man who came and tried to help her.
Officers broke up the crowd, but shortly after that, there were more problems in the downtown area.

Police say once the large group left Waterfront Park, 70-80 teens were reported to be causing a scene at the White Castle on 1st Street. Nearby, a woman reported a group of teens assaulted her while she was parked in her car. Police say her two children were in the car with her, as the suspects repeatedly punched her and threw trash cans at the car.

A group then raided Bader's Market on South 1st Street. Police say they took items off the shelves and assaulted the clerk as he tried to close the doors on them.

Police were then called to three separate assaults on 5th and Broadway, 6th and Broadway, and 3rd and Chestnut. Each victim in those assaults had to be transported to the hospital.

Police say this is not common for Louisville, pointing out that crime rates in downtown Louisville have dropped in recent years.

On Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer addressed the problem, telling the teens their behavior was unacceptable.

"To the young kids, y'all know what you did was wrong. You weren't raised this way. It's not the way we roll in the city. We expect greatness from our youth. We don't expect violence from our youth. So we're calling on you, obviously, to get your act together."

Police patrols will be stepped up near the Big Four bridge on nights and weekends.

Officers will increase patrols in Waterfront park on nights and weekends. So far, police say only one arrest has been made in connection with the incidents, and they're still looking for more suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to call the LMPD crime tipline at 574-LMPD (574-5673).

Illinois Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon is Illinois’ answer to racist Pennsylvania AG Kathleen G. Kane. Simon, the daughter of late socialist Illinois Senator Paul Simon, would have run for Illinois AG, but the job was already taken by fellow Democratic hack Lisa Madigan, form another political dynasty, so Simon is running for state comptroller.

Harvey, which is in dire financial straits, has reportedly been late in filing required audits for the past four years. Officials stepped in to review the city's records Friday morning.

"Our auditors will be reviewing city financial records and working to bring Harvey into compliance with state reporting laws. If the auditors find financial impropriety, that information will be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement agency," State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka's spokesman Brad Hahn told the Chicago Tribune.

According to the Tribune, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials are also probing into a city deal for a hotel development in the south suburb that was ultimately unsuccessful, yet left taxpayers holding a $10 million tab. The newspaper has also brought to light other suspicious expenses, including $88,000 that went to a company connected to the mayor's son. The company helped with the city's website and Twitter account, which had a large number of fake followers. Additionally, the amount of web work for the price tag has been called into question by experts.

Officials from the Cook County Sheriff's office and Illinois Comptroller's office arrive at Harvey's City Hall unannounced on March 21, 2014 to perform a review of the city's financial records.
By Matthew Walberg and Joe Mahr
10:07 p.m. CDT, March 21, 2014Chicago Tribune

Cook County sheriff's deputies and officials from the state comptroller's office descended on Harvey's City Hall on Friday to begin auditing financial records in an effort to enforce a watchdog law long ignored by the scandal-plagued south suburb.

The action came on the same day the Tribune reported on questionable insider deals in Harvey occurring while the city's appointed comptroller is warning that the suburb is heading toward financial ruin. The deals included $88,000 to a firm tied to the mayor's son for social media work — the quality of which experts questioned.

That story followed a series of Tribune articles in February that documented how Harvey has become arguably the most lawless community in the region, reeling from the effects of high violent crime rates, subpar policing and shaky finances amid ineffectual or nonexistent oversight from state and federal authorities. That included the suburb failing for years to follow a law — overseen by the state comptroller — that requires cities and villages to perform yearly audits.

Under Illinois law, if a town does not complete its audit, the state comptroller is allowed to hire auditors to do it and bill the town for the work.

On Friday, four sheriff's vehicles arrived at the south suburb's aging City Hall, joined by an SUV and a minivan with state plates. About a dozen people from those vehicles entered City Hall and walked into the office of the city clerk, an elected official whose job includes keeping and tracking the city's records.

One of Sheriff Tom Dart's top aides, Cara Smith, told the Tribune that the deputies were there to assist the comptroller's office in beginning the process of auditing Harvey's books.

Brad Hahn, spokesman for state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, said representatives from their office went “to assist the city with its financial reporting.” He would not say whether the office would review any of the insider deals highlighted in the newspaper.

He said the agency was limited in what additional details it could give, repeating what it had told the Tribune earlier — that there was an ongoing investigation by an agency he wouldn't name to which the comptroller has already forwarded some records.

The comptroller's office declined to elaborate on the investigation, or say if it is related to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on a failed insider development deal previously exposed by the Tribune that cost taxpayers $10 million.

Mayor Eric Kellogg was seen going into City Hall about 15 minutes after deputies and auditors arrived. He later issued a statement through a spokeswoman that said the group had a “very productive meeting.”

“We appreciate the assistance of the comptroller's office in assisting us as it relates to becoming current with our financial reporting requirements,” the mayor said.

The move by Dart and Topinka comes seven years after another high-profile unannounced visit by outside authorities, that time armed with subpoenas. Then, deputies were joined by county prosecutors and state police seeking evidence that had long been ignored by Harvey police in murder and rape cases.

But while authorities have looked inside Harvey's Police Department, none had publicly examined its finances. Dart, long critical of Harvey's policing, has been looking for a way to get a peek at the books. After the Tribune series in February, he pushed County Board members to adopt an ordinance that would allow him to act as the inspector general for suburbs that failed to file audits. But that legislation has run into opposition from suburban mayors and politicians, including County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who say it's the state's responsibility to force audits.

It's unclear what level of access his office will be given to the records gathered by auditors. When the state comptroller's spokesman was asked if the sheriff's people would also be reviewing the records, the spokesman responded that the comptroller's office would be using its own accountants.

“Our auditors will be reviewing city financial records and working to bring Harvey into compliance with state reporting laws. If the auditors find financial impropriety, that information will be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement agency,” Hahn said in an email.

Harvey is four years behind on the audits, making it difficult — if not impossible — for outsiders and residents to get a clear grasp of the city's financial health.

Records the Tribune obtained suggest that the city is nearly insolvent — borrowing big in recent years yet still spending millions more than it took in, while starving its pension funds and stiffing Chicago on water that the suburb bought and resold. Chicago has sued Harvey. Records show Chicago is owed $18 million for unpaid water bills, about the same amount Harvey takes in from taxes and fees in an entire year.

Kellogg has bristled at the idea of outside intervention. Last year Dart offered to act as the city's inspector general — an offer eventually made to other suburbs. The Harvey mayor declined the request, calling it “political posturing.”

About Me

I am a dissident journalist, whose work has been published in dozens of daily newspapers, magazines, and journals in English, German, and Swedish, under my own name and many pseudonyms. While living in internal exile in New York, where I am whitelisted, I maintain NSU/The Wyatt Earp Journalism Bureau and some eight other blogs (some are distinctive but occasional venues, while others are mirrors), and also write for stout-hearted men such as Peter Brimelow and Jared Taylor. Please hit the “Donate” button on your way out. Thanks, in advance.
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